More specifically, how will potential buyers embrace the chance to own 1026 N. Beckley Ave.?

Lee Harvey Oswald rented a room there in 1963, until he was accused of killing President John F. Kennedy and Dallas police Officer J.D. Tippit.

Pat Hall’s family has lived there for 70 years. Now, she hopes to parlay its past into a comfortable future elsewhere.

The place can be yours for a cool $500,000. Furnished and all.

“That’s what I feel will take care of me for the rest of my life,” said Hall, 61. “And maybe have something to help with my grandchildren’s college.”

Hall’s grandmother, Gladys Johnson, bought the north Oak Cliff property in 1943 and for years ran a rooming house there. Her tenants included Oswald, who arrived on Oct. 14, 1963, taking a room for $8 a week including refrigerator and living room privileges.

On Nov. 22, he returned to the house 30 minutes or so after the president’s assassination, spent a brief period in his room and hurriedly left, the housekeeper later said. Fifteen minutes later, Oswald gunned down Tippit at 10th and Patton streets, less than a mile away.

For now, Hall’s real estate agent, Vo Singhal, is handling all inquiries through a website, theoswaldhouse.com. Only prospective buyers screened by Singhal will be allowed to view the property, he said.

They will see that the window air-conditioned house, its multiroom basement and a rear structure need repairs.

Inside, they will find furnishings from the Oswald days, Hall says, that will remain with the house: Oswald’s metal-frame twin bed and wardrobe dresser; the dining room table, chandelier and wallpaper; a piano, coffee table, rocking chair and reupholstered couch; the kitchen stove and Oswald bathtub.

The Dallas Central Appraisal District values the land, what it says is a 2,047-square-foot house and outer building at $65,830. What the property is worth without an independent appraisal, and without the Oswald link, is all guesswork, area real estate professionals say.

Its presence in the Lake Cliff Historic District would add value, one agent said, as well as offer some protection from demolition. Houses in a nearby neighborhood sold recently for $58 and $67 per square foot, but how they compare with the Beckley property is unclear.

Bottom line, what is the Oswald intangible worth? What sort of a wild card does his past presence add to the dealing?

Good question, said Diane Sherman, an Oak Cliff-based real estate agent who specializes in historic homes.

“You could have a cash buyer with a strong, burning passion,” she said. “There’s no way to know until you hear what the market says.”

Hall moved into the house 12 years ago to care for her mother, the late Fay Puckett. Now, she hopes to move on from a place rich in priceless memories, as well as circumstance.

“If the history of the house can’t help the family that’s cared for it all these years, that’s sad,” she said.

With the real estate market surging and the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination nearing, “all the stars are lining up” for 1026 N. Beckley, Singhal said.

Thirty or so people have asked about the house and one offer has been rejected, he said.

The only acceptable offer will at least match the asking price, Hall said. “It begins there.”

Standing in the living room, as a photographer roamed about documenting the scene, Hall and Singhal brought up other questions asked through the years. Such as:

If you had killed or been involved in the killing of the president of the United States, why would you not have a getaway planned? Why would you return to your residence and leave on foot, armed with a handgun?

“Why did he come back here?” Singhal said. “Why here?”

“It would be interesting to know,” Hall said, launching into other assassination uncertainties.

“Speculating is a lot of fun,” she said, “but you can’t change facts.”

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